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Lincoln delivered little-known Hanover Address

The details of president local visit are fuzzy, but he did speak to the impromptu crowd

By Sarah Fleischman

sfleischman@eveningsun.com @sefleischman on Twitter

Updated:
11/19/2013 07:21:23 PM EST

This marker facing North Railroad Street details President Lincoln's brief stop and remarks in Hanover on his way to deliver the Gettysburg Address. (EVENING SUN - SHANE DUNLAP)

Gettysburg got two minutes and 20 seconds from President Lincoln as he delivered his famous 272-word address. The day before, Hanover got nearly four times as long.

For eight minutes, the train carrying President Abraham Lincoln's stopped in town 150 years ago en route to Gettysburg. Hanover historian Wendy Bish-McGrew says Lincoln stopped in Hanover so the train's engine could be switched, because the remaining track to Gettysburg wasn't as sturdy and couldn't handle the heavier locomotive. Reports that Lincoln switched cars to ride in one made in Hanover are false, she said, because the car he was already in would have been fine on the track.

Lincoln's Hanover Address began as the engines were switched, after some coaxing from the crowd of hundreds who gathered when they heard the president would be stopping, former Gettysburg College professor Gabor Boritt wrote in "The Gettysburg Gospel."

A plaque on Railroad Street dedicated in 1942 tells the tale of those eight minutes, but only partially. The author of the plaque's inscription is a mystery, but a 1999 newspaper article notes it was possibly William Anthony, a local amateur historian who had unfortunately a reputation for not letting the facts get in the way of a good story.

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What is clear is that on Nov. 18, 1863 at around 5 p.m., Lincoln's train stopped at the station near what is now the library. The plaque and newspaper articles from after the visit agree that Lincoln didn't emerge at first. The president was battling smallpox at the time and didn't want to come out of the train, Bish-McGrew said.

The crowd cheered repeatedly, and then local pastor M.J. Alleman of St. Matthew's Lutheran Church, called out "Father Abraham, come out, your children want to hear you," according to William Anthony's 1945 book "History of the Battle of Hanover."

Lincoln got up and walked out to the rear platform of the car. Those gathered noticed he took off his tall hat as he came through the door, the plaque says.

When he emerged from the car, reported the Hanover Spectator and the Hanover Citizen, Lincoln said, "Well, you have seen me, and according to general experience, you have seen less than you expected to see."

The crowd laughed. Then, according to Boritt, Lincoln continued:

"You had the rebels here last summer, hadn't you?" he asked, referring to the Battle of Hanover, where 11 soldiers lost their lives.

The crowd confirmed that indeed the rebels had visited Hanover.

What happened next is unclear. Hanover's two newspapers didn't quote Lincoln beyond his first statement, but Boritt wrote that Lincoln continued:

"Well, did you fight them any?" Lincoln asked jokingly.

The Philadelphia Inquirer noted a few days later that "the people looked at each other with a half-amused, half-puzzled expression, while the long, tall form of the President leaned from the car as he waited the reply."

No one laughed.

"Fighting was no jocular matter for folk who had worried about their houses being burnt, their property stolen, who experienced the massive death and destruction around them," Boritt wrote.

The plaque does not include Lincoln's jokes or the awkward pause in its description of the day's events. But the it does include what he might have said next:

"I trust when the enemy was here the citizens of Hanover were loyal to our country and the stars and stripes, if you are not all true patriots in support of the Union, you should be."

Both of Hanover's newspapers reported that a woman gave the President a bouquet and he went on his way. The plaque also credits Jackie Melsheimer, a young boy, with handing the president an apple while he was held aloft by his father. The train, conducted by Hanoverian John Eckert, then made its way to Gettysburg.

The plaque also notes that on the return journey, Lincoln gave Eckert a silver pocket watch, but Bish-McGrew said the stories about the watch didn't surface until the 1940s.

On that return journey, Lincoln passed through Hanover again. But this time, his train didn't stop.